Ten years after THE LION OF THE NORTH, where Kenton le Bec was a secondary character, Kenton finds himself sworn to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. They are in the last days of the War of the Roses at this point and, as you’ll see in the story, Kenton has played a big role in those final days. He has become Warwick’s attack dog.

Atticus de Wolfe isn’t in Kenton’s story at all except by way of mention because Atticus, ten years down the road, has remained at Wolfe’s Lair and is charged with holding the borders while Kenton runs off and plays the big, bad soldier with Warwick. Kenton is tough, intelligent, and no-nonsense, but we discover that he has one hell of an Achilles’ heel in Lady Nicola Aubrey-Thorne.

Unlike some, or most, of my other books, there aren’t any big connections in this novel. Conor de Birmingham, one of Kenton’s knights, is a descendant of Devlin de Birmingham (
Black Sword
), and there are recognizable surnames in this novel, but no one who is of particularly note as far as relationships. Kenton, however, is the grandson of Richmond le Bec (
Great Protector
) and Kenton’s uncle is a major secondary character in
BEAST
and his aunt is the heroine of that novel as well.

And as with THE LION OF THE NORTH, Kenton’s story also involves a major battle. His tale sees the peripheral build up to probably the most definitive battle in the War of the Roses – the Battle of Barnet where Warwick was killed. It was after this battle that Edward finally seized the throne and ruled for several years unopposed, but this story isn’t really about Barnet – it’s a pure battle-and-politics-and-passion driven novel that has some serious highs and lows.

I hope you’ll enjoy!

Hugs,

Kathryn

Kathryn Le Veque Novels

Medieval Romance:

The White Lord of Wellesbourne

The Dark One: Dark Knight

While Angels Slept

Rise of the Defender

Spectre of the Sword

Unending Love

Archangel

Lord of the Shadows

Great Protector

To the Lady Born

The Falls of Erith

Lord of War: Black Angel (also related to The Dark One: Dark Knight)

The Darkland

Black Sword

The Wolfe

Serpent

Scorpion (Also related to THE QUESTING)

The Lion of the North

Walls of Babylon (also related to Great Protector and Beast)

The Whispering Night

Netherworld

The Dark Lord

Devil’s Dominion

Unrelated characters or family groups:

The Gorgon (Also related to Lords of Thunder)

The Warrior Poet

Guardian of Darkness (related to The Fallen One)

Tender is the Knight

The Legend

Lespada (Also related to Lords of Thunder)

Lord of Light

The Questing (related to The Dark Lord, Scorpion)

Beast (related to Great Protector, The Dark One: Dark Knight)

The Dragonblade Trilogy:

Dragonblade

Island of Glass

The Savage Curtain

The Fallen One

Fragments of Grace

Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy

The Thunder Lord

The Thunder Warrior

The Thunder Knight

Novella, Time Travel Romance:

Echoes of Ancient Dreams.

Contemporary Romance:

Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:

Valley of the Shadow

The Eden Factor

Canyon of the Sphinx

The American Heroes Series:

Resurrection

Fires of Autumn

Evenshade

Sea of Dreams

Purgatory

Other Contemporary Romance:

Lady of Heaven

Darkling, I Listen

Time Travel Romance:

The Crusader

Kingdom Come

Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups.

Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups.

Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.

There is NO particular chronological order for any of the novels because they can all be read as stand-alones, even the series.

For more information, find it on Amazon in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.

THE LEGEND BEGINS

Present time

Yorkshire, UK, East of Huddersfield

Babylon Castle

“Another old pile of rocks,” he said as he pulled into the tree-shrouded car park and they could see the castle ruins across the road. “Seriously,
another
old pile of rocks?”

The wife ignored his comment for the most part. “Yes, another old pile of rocks,” she said as she opened the door and climbed out. “This is the last one for the day so you’ll be spared any further misery after this.”

The husband sighed heavily as he turned the car off and took the keys, climbing out of the car with far less enthusiasm than his wife. Already, she was standing at the end of the car park, looking at the ruins across the small road. The day had been misty and foggy for the most part but at this time in the afternoon, the gloom had lifted slightly. Still, it was rather cold and eerie, and exploring derelict old castles on a day like this was particularly spooky. The husband shut the car door and locked the car, making a face of utter and complete displeasure as he walked up behind his wife.

“Okay, so what’s so great about this one that we haven’t seen with the four other piles of rocks we’ve visited today?” he asked as they crossed the road to the ruins. “I’ll be completely honest when I say they all look alike to me.”

The wife didn’t look at him as she spoke.“And I’ll be completely honest when I say that any more honesty from you and I’m going to find some dark, dank dungeon and leave you there.”

The husband eyed the wife; he was a little taller than she was, and stronger, but she could fight dirty in certain situations. More than that, he believed her. After all, he
had
been complaining quite a lot about the old castles she wanted to visit, but as a seventh-grade history teacher from California, things like old castles and old buildings and museums fascinated her. She wanted to take her experiences back to her students.

While she wanted to do the educational stuff, he wanted to check out the cities and the pubs, and maybe sit and watch a few football games. But he knew she wouldn’t go for that. Therefore, he was tagging along much like a kid being forced to do something he didn’t want to do. He really
didn’t
want to do this and he was complaining every step of the way.

“Whatever,” he said in a disgruntled tone, moving away from her so she couldn’t grab hold of him, just in case she really meant to throw him in a dungeon. “So tell me about this old pile of rocks. What’s so important about it?”

The wife came to a halt when they came off the road, looking up at the soaring gatehouse overhead. It was a massive structure, at least four stories in height, and the enormous curtain walls that were twenty feet high in places were still standing for the most part. The stone, a sort of light beige color, had darkened and stained over the centuries, but the age of the place didn’t dampen the impact she felt while gazing upon it.

“Nobody is really sure,” she said as they began to move through the gatehouse, once a grand thing with massive gates, now just a shell of what used to be. “It was built in the fourteenth century so it never saw any early action in the history of England, but it was documented to have been strategically important during the last part of the War of the Roses when Edward and Henry were going at it.”

The husband was listening but he was already bored nearly out of his skull. All he could hear was
blah, blah, blah
. He had to make a conscious effort to prevent his eyes from rolling back in his head.

“Any famous knights or kings who lived here?” he asked.

They emerged from the gatehouse into a fairly significant inner ward, an uneven and muddy place. They could see the remains of an inner set of walls, now half of their original height because the local villages had plundered the stone to build their homes with a few hundred years before. The wife seemed fascinated by the massive outer walls and the seemingly ruined inner walls.

“Look at these walls,” she said, pointing. “An inner set and an outer set. They call these concentric walls, you know. What seems odd is the fact that the inner walls are ruinous but the outer walls remain intact.”

The husband was looking at what she was indicating. “Why is that odd?”

The wife shrugged. “Because, normally, the outer walls would be destroyed first,” she said. “When Cromwell came through during the English Civil War, he bombarded a lot of these castles with canons so they couldn’t be used by the enemy. He tore down walls and ripped apart the keeps and such. But these walls were evidently spared.”

Now she was talking about a war and battles, which interested him somewhat. “Maybe he didn’t come this far north.”

The wife shook her head. “He did,” she said. “But he left Babylon alone.”

“Babylon?”

“That’s the name of this castle.”

The wife turned her attention to the massive four-storied keep to her left. It was mostly intact except for the roof and the floors. It was essentially just one enormous shell. She went over to the steps leading to the keep entry, which was a beautiful herringbone arch. She could peek inside but a permanent railing prevented her from going inside. It was a gigantic space.

“Wow,” she said. “Look at how big this place was. You could put a hundred people on one floor alone.”

The husband came up behind her, peering into the big, empty cavity of a building. “Big,” he agreed. Then he turned to look out over the ward. “It doesn’t look like there’s much else to see here.”

The wife ignored him; she was still looking into the keep, imagining the people who used to live here and love here. That was what she always imagined when she saw these great ruins. Her husband didn’t understand that something drew her to these places and Babylon, in particular, held a fascination for her. It had since she’d first read about it years ago and when she and her husband were finally able to take their dream trip to England, Babylon was one of her non-negotiable destinations. Now, she was here, and it was totally worth the visit in her opinion. She could just feel the spirits of centuries past around her.

“Babylon Castle was built by the Thorne family,” she said. “It guarded one of the major roads between Yorkshire and Manchester. There’s supposed to be a great love story connected with it.”

The husband was standing back in the muddy ward now, listening to his wife as she came away from the keep. He turned to look at the soaring structure behind him.

“What love story?” he asked. Then, he pointed upward. “Maybe Rapunzel lived up there and threw her hair out of the window for a soldier to climb up it.”

The wife shook her head reproachfully. “No, Rapunzel didn’t live here,” she said with some disgust. “If you’re not going to be serious about it, I won’t tell you.”

She started to walk away, rounding the side of the keep, and he followed. “Okay, I’m sorry,” he said, although he didn’t sound like he meant it. “What’s the story?”

The wife glanced at him. “It’s a local story,” she said. “I found it while doing research online for all of the castles I wanted to see. Legend says that a lady knight held off a siege by another knight, but when he conquered the castle, she fell in love with him. They married and had something like ten kids. Lots of kids. Anyway, the legend also says that their ghosts are still here because, rather than go to heaven and separate after death, they chose to remain here on earth so they could always be together. Some say that when it gets really foggy, you can hear them calling to each other through the mists.”

The husband made a face, looking around because there was a fairly heavy cloud cover this day. It was growing heavier as the sun began to set. “Beautiful,” he snorted. “So there are ghosts here. Hellooooooo!”

He called out, his voice reverberating off the ancient stone walls. The wife shushed him harshly.

“Be quiet,” she hissed, slapping him on the arm. It didn’t hurt because she really only slapped the jacket, but the message was obvious. “Why do you have to be so obnoxious?”

He was grinning at his sense of humor, sobering when he realized she didn’t think it was all that funny. “Sorry,” he said, although he didn’t mean it. “I thought maybe they might call back.”

The wife rolled her eyes at him; he was essentially ruining this visit for her and she was growing frustrated. “Will you please go wait for me in the car?” she said, unhappy. “I… I just want to be alone in here. Just go away for a few minutes, okay?”

Seeing he hurt her feelings, the husband tried to sound contrite. “I really am sorry,” he said. “I’ll behave.”

The wife shook her head and pointed to the car. “Just go sit in the car,” she said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

With a shrug, the husband trudged off across the inner ward. The wife watched him until he went through the gatehouse and disappeared, heading to the car park across the street. Breathing a sigh of relief, she began to walk the inner ward, touching the stones that had obviously fallen from the inner walls, seeing the outlines of foundations against the walls that had been the outbuildings at one time.

She circled around the ward and ended up behind the keep where a well had been covered over with heavy wire, bolted down to prevent anyone from lifting it. The inner walls were particularly derelict back here, almost down to the ground, and she noticed what looked to be a bricked-up passage in the outer wall. She went over to it, running her hand along the bricked-up archway, wondering why it had been sealed up. Someone had evidently done it, long ago.

She felt such incredible fascination with the old ruins, fascination that was difficult to describe. Being a history major, ancient ruins very much intrigued her because she wondered more about the people who had lived there more than she wondered about their struggle of daily life or even the structure itself. She wondered what the people hoped for and wished on and dreamed about. Therefore, the legend about the lady knight and her lover was of particular interest to her, although she didn’t know why. It was only a legend, of course, but she wondered if it was based on fact. She wondered if there really
had
been a lady knight and her enemy lover, now forever wandering the grounds of Babylon because they never wanted to be separated. As she stood there and touched the old stone, she could only think of one thing.

If these walls could talk….

She grinned, wondering if she should ask them. Her husband wasn’t around so he wouldn’t think she was insane. Putting both hands on the ancient rock that had stood for centuries, she spoke softly.

“If these great walls of Babylon could talk, what would they tell me?” she whispered.

She didn’t really expect to receive an answer.

But she did.

BOOK: De Wolfe Pack 05 - Walls of Babylon

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